Case Blog

I have reflected more and more of late on the distinction between the artisan and the artist. In most great media companies, the executive team and the talent who create content execute against a strategy that the leadership team has defined. We often discuss vision and its ability to define our enterprise. Everyone wants to be associated with a winning team that has a shared value set.

In many respects, the artisans and the artists need to work closely together to deliver on the promise of the vision. As I start to expand my wine cellar, I have realized that I naturally gravitate toward the hard-to-find wines from small wineries. Perhaps this habit was formed early in my life, when I began to seek only the rarest of baseball cards, but I sense that it also reflects an interest in how products are produced and why some emerge as exceptional. As part of this holiday season, I am going to share with you some of my favorite California wineries, which I believe exemplify the search for excellence.

Abreu: David Abreu is often retained by others to prepare their vineyards when they want to reach for perfection. His own Cabernet Sauvignon wines, the Madrona Ranch and Thorevilos, are consistently outstanding. As part of his annual offering, he includes a virgin olive oil that is among the best that I have had anywhere. Abreu is a very small production vineyard and there is a waiting list @ www.abreuvineyards.com.

Aubert: Mark Aubert is the winemaker for Colgin (which is mentioned below), but also produces his own Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. They are outstanding efforts and definitely two of my favorites. This is also a limited producer with a waiting list @ www.aubertwines.com.

Behrens and Hitchcock-Erna Schein: The team here is one of the most adventurous in the wine industry. They produce unique blends that most winemakers would not dare to try. Amazingly, with each vintage they manage to consistently produce some wines that always place on my personal top 10 list. You can visit them @ www.ernaschein.com.

Colgin: Ann Colgin and her winemaker Mark Aubert consistently produce outstanding Cabernet Sauvignon wines and also some extraordinary blends. After waiting more than 6 years on the wait list, I missed my first chance to order because of an overzealous spam filter! They were kind enough to put be back on the list, without further delay, with the next release. www.colgincellars.com.

Copain: Twice a year I receive some of my favorite Syrahs from Wells Guthrie and his team. Mary Claire and I had the pleasure of sitting with him last year in New York at a winemakers’ dinner at Craft. He clearly loves what he does and it shows in the quality of each release. I often marvel that he does not charge twice the price! To join his mailing list go to www.copainwines.com.

Harlan: The Harlan Estate is our country’s first growth and consistently one of the top wines produced in the world. Bill Harlan and his winemaker Bob Levy are perfectionists, and I cannot think of a wine that I hold in higher regard. You can get on the wait list @ www.harlanestate.com. The wait will be at least several years, but once you are on the list you will always take your full allocation of these exceptional wines!

Martinelli: If you cannot get on the Marcassin mailing list, try the Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs produced by Martinelli. Helen Turley, the proprietor of Marcassin, together with her husband, John Wetlaufer, is the winemaker for Martinelli. My personal favorite is the Pinot Noir Blue Side Ridge. www.martinelliwinery.com

Merus: If you like big, bold full-bodied red wines, Merus is for you. This winery is run from the home of Mark Herold and his wife, Erika Gottl. I actually placed my order on the phone with Erika for their first release, the Merus 1998. Mark is clearly one of the rising stars in Napa Valley and works as the wine consultant with other outstanding small wineries, including Buccella and Kobalt. www.meruswines.com

Pisoni: Gary Pisoni is legendary among his fellow winemakers, to whom he supplies grapes for their Pinot wines. He is a man of his word and does business on a handshake. He and his two sons, Mark and Jeff, consistently produce world-class Pinot Noir wines under the Pisoni Estate Label. Their new Santa Lucia line of wines is excellent, consisting of releases of Cabernet Sauvignons, Syrahs, Chardonnays as well as Pinot Noirs. www.pisonivineyards.com

Peter Michael Winery: If you prefer wines made more in a French style, then you should try the wines produced by Sir Peter Michael and his team. His l’Apres Midi Sauvignon Blanc is always exquisite and wonderful with a Saturday or Sunday brunch in the summer or with my favorite Chinese takeout from Shun Lee Palace in New York. www.petermichaelwinery.com

I have about a dozen more California wineries that I would love to share with you, but I will save them for another time. It is time to do some stacking in the new wine cellar. Ten cases arrived yesterday! As we prepare for Thanksgiving, let’s give thanks for both the artisans and the artists we have on our teams and be particularly thankful for the wonderful media business, which always keeps us engaged.

Happy Thanksgiving!

As fall moves into winter we are seeing more turmoil and a lack of confidence in the leadership of our blue chip financial institutions. Within the past two weeks we have seen the resignations of Stan O’Neal, CEO of Merrill Lynch (MER) and Charles Prince, CEO of Citigroup (C), the world’s largest bank based on assets. They were both brought down by their inability to size their firms’ exposure to the subprime mortgage mess that continues to roil the global financial markets. Whether they were brought down by structured investment vehicles (SIVs) or collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), where they underestimated their exposure, or a lack of confidence in them by their shareholders and finally their boards, both CEOs seemed very distant from the market in which they operated.

The lesson for those of us in the media business is very clear: companies need leaders that know their business and have come up through the ranks. Leaders need to rise from the operating side of the business and understand the markets’ need for transparency. Unfortunately, the trappings of power help many leaders forget that their board represents the shareholders and other stakeholders in the firm and that surprises and failure to deliver on promises can only be tolerated for so long. Sandy Weill’s legacy would have been much better served if JPMorgan Chase’s (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon, Weill’s original heir apparent, had succeeded him, as opposed to his corporate counsel, Chuck Prince.

During all this turmoil, I was pleased to see that Time Warner’s (TWX) board finally anointed Jeff Bewkes as CEO, effective January 1, 2008. He will take over from Dick Parsons, who will remain chairman. Bewkes developed his game at HBO and clearly is comfortable in a leadership role. He has been quoted in the press as stating that “everything is on the table.” In Unlocking Shareholder Value on July 1st, I called for Time Warner to take a more aggressive approach in spinning out Time Warner Cable and setting free AOL. I believe that shareholders and the markets would react very positively if these were some of Bewkes’ first moves as CEO.

While we wait to see what direction Bewkes takes Time Warner, it will also be interesting to watch over time how Barry Diller’s latest move to create a more highly valued company at InterActiveCorp (IAC), by splitting into five companies, is received by the market and Liberty Media’s John Malone. As a former board member of Ask.com, prior to the sale, I am pleased to see that Diller believes that Ask.com is core to his future.

While the stock markets continue their retreat, one stock stands out, Google (GOOG). As I write this column, Google’s share price is above $740. The run from $600 to $740 has been breathtaking and some pundits are now projecting a price of over $900! Markets reward transparency, confidence and outstanding results driven by above market growth. I trust that Google’s leadership triumvirate will remain in place.

I am off this weekend to Outsell’s Signature Event, co-produced with The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc., on Kiawah Island. I am looking forward to a round of golf on the Ocean Course on Sunday, prior to listening to the information industry leaders in the evening. I have been told to pack a significant number of golf balls!

NOTE: This column first appeared min’s b2b this past week.

Renovation of a home, product portfolio or oneself is never easy. It requires painstaking attention to detail, with little margin for error. It became clear to both Mary Claire and me about two years ago that we needed to undertake a significant renovation of our home.

While Mary Claire has overseen this project and made all the key decisions (her taste and sense of style are impeccable), I was allocated one small piece, the development of a wine cellar off our kitchen. I quickly learned that building underground in California, with its regular small and sometimes large earthquakes, is not for the faint of heart. We needed to reinforce the stairs above the wine cellar by running a 12-foot steel beam that was twisted and bolted to the outside of the steps to reinforce the steps and to insure that they could withstand the day-to-day usage, meet strict building codes, and withstand the force of a strong earthquake. Once the excavation went down four feet below the foundation of the house, we found that we needed to reinforce the foundation of the wine cellar with 10 inches of concrete.

Most things we own, even products in our portfolios, age at different rates and need to be constantly monitored and updated in response to changes in the world around us. Today in B2B media, our focus on our customers’ needs will be met by online information products, both live and online events, and finally by print products. This is a dramatic change in order, and one that requires our full attention and the appropriate resources to ensure that the transition is a success. We should not view the Internet as a disruptive force, but as a positive force for change that will allow us to build stronger franchises and to extend our businesses down new paths. This will lead to true renovation and renewal. And while renovation can be in itself a disruptive force, it is a necessary undertaking and one that, if done correctly, will leave the properties it effects better off than before.

With one’s career the same level of attention to detail is needed. As we in the baby boom generation look further out, we are beginning to realize that 60 is the new 40 and that our careers need to stretch out well into our ’60s and ’70s. During my tenure as CEO of Reed Business Information, the portfolio included Variety and Broadcasting & Cable and I had the good fortune to meet and spend some personal time on several occasions with Jack Valenti, then CEO and president of the Motion Picture Association of America. Jack was in his early ’80s, but had lost none of his zest for life or his ability to fascinate with stories from his past. I am currently reading his autobiography, “This Time, This Place: My Life in War, the White House, and Hollywood.” Jack started out his working life with an advertising career, which was interrupted by World War II. He flew 51 missions in the European Theater and remained a great patriot throughout his life. He came back from the war and built a strong ad agency in Houston and was involved in a number of successful political campaigns. Through his agency he met Lyndon Baines Johnson, and when an assassin’s gun thrust Vice President Johnson into the Presidency on that fateful day in November of 1963, he asked Jack, who was in the motorcade, to join him. He went on to a remarkable 3rd act in Hollywood and finally retired in his early ’80s and passed away this past April at the age of 85.

We ended our trip west with a return visit to The French Laundry in Yountville. The French Laundry has been owned and operated by Thomas Keller since 1994. As always, we were not disappointed and it confirmed for me that Keller is a national treasure. That The French Laundry has been regularly sited as one of the best restaurants in the U.S. and the world for 13 years speaks volumes about the value of attention to detail.